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Drum Containing Mystery RAM
Radsafers:
We are tearing down our old Engineering Laboratory here at Montana State,
and we've stumbled opon an old drum containing something radioactive. The
exposure rate on the surface of the drum is between 50 and 100 microR/hr
(not really a big deal), however, the material itself is something of a
mystery at the moment.
The material in the drum weighs in at about 550 lbs. The material
physically appears to be small thin chips (<= 5 cm2), metallic in nature
(albeit very brittle). The color of the material is dull grey, with a bit
of reddish brown (oxidation?). Frankly, the stuff looks like a residue
that's been scraped off of some large vessel.
We do have a some leads, and I'll pass them on here. There was a tag on the
drum giving the following info:
Western Uranium Project
LUCIUS PITKIN, INC.
Contractor for United States Atomic Energy Commission
Contract No: AT (05-1)-912
P.O. Box 1?39
Grand Junction, Colorado - 81502
Written on the drum (hardly legible)
VANADIUM PENTOXIDE
URAVAN
Contract At 05-1-36
Lot 127 Drum 79
We're well aware of the properties of the vanadium compound, and what
vandium could have been used for. As for URAVAN, the only thing that comes
to mind is Uranium/Vanadium.
I've crushed some of the chips and put them in the LSC, and I'm seeing a
number of peaks out to approximately 400 keV (although the activity is low).
We've got to cool down the GeLi before we can do any gamma work.
We've contacted Pitkin, but they turned things over to Allied Chemical (whom
we haven't been able to get a hold of).
Any thoughts or suggestions?
-Erick
+-------------------------------+
| Erick Lindstrom |
| Radiation Safety Officer |
| 309 Montana Hall |
| Montana State University |
| Bozeman, MT 59717-0244 |
| Phone: (406) 994-2108 |
| Fax: (406) 994-4792 |
| avrel@gemini.oscs.montana.edu |
+-------------------------------+